I looked up the vehicle market share to see how Mazda did in the US over the last year. I was surprised to find that Mazda only accounts for 2% of the market. I have known Mazda is a smaller player in the market but I didn’t realize it was that small. If you look at what Mazda brings to the table you realize they do very well with what they sell. Looking at the product lines, Mazda has a vehicle in most of the segments like compact, mid size, sports car, etc. which is an accomplishment for a smaller manufacturer.
Mazda has great enthusiast support for their vehicles as well. Mazda advertises that more of their models are out racing on any weekend than any other manufacturer, and Mazda is only a 2% percent market share. They also brought us the Miata, the best selling sports car of all time, with over 890,000 sold to date! It does make you wonder what those other manufacturers are doing with their time. This also means we at CorkSport, like you, chose Mazda over some other brand based on the cars being fun to drive.
A strong component of the fun to drive crowd is the demographic of a Mazda owner. The mean age of Mazda owners is 42 years old. Only Scion has a younger average owner age, and they are a brand marketed directly to younger buyers.
There has been some news circulating about Mazda not being able to build new platforms since Ford and Mazda are not longer going to share resources. I don’t think this will be a problem for Mazda. There has been some shared chassis between Mazda and Ford in the past but Mazda has often developed their own platforms to build cars on. They have the engineering capabilities to do so in the future as well.
Mazda has just recently raised a huge amount of capital to fund its engine research for their new SKY engine series, and other projects which are not going to be shared with Ford. Mazda announced they want to increase the fuel economy by 30% in the upcoming years. Expect to see more direct injected motors in the future from Mazda to meet that goal. I am really hoping we get the direct injected diesel engines in the upcoming Mazda 2. The engine gets incredible fuel economy and meets ULEV (Ultra Low) emissions requirements for Europe.
Mazda SKY Engine
Mazda is not the biggest manufacturer of cars and probably never will be, but we can count on them to keep producing great vehicles for us to drive. With the visible plans Mazda has set out I expect to see some great products in the future.
– Derrick
Great write-up about a car company with what I think has a hugely loyal following among those who have owned and drive Mazda vehicles. I just want to add, I’m on my 3rd Mazda (I still own an 93 Miata with over 200k ORIGINAL miles on it -I’m the 2nd owner and bout it in 96) My last daily driver was an 05Mazda 3. I bought her showroom floor new & put over 40K miles on her. Beyond routine oil changes & basic routine maintenance stuff, I only had to have it in the shop one time in the 3 1/2yrs I had her…and it was for a faulty electrical sensor – to boot it was under warranty, so no cost to me. She was VERY reliable.
The total reliability and dependability of the two cars above has made me a Mazda guy for life (14yrs now!) I’ve had a few fords and a BMW in the years before the Miata…and dug them all, but none ever really got into me like the Mazda cars have. For me, now I have the car of my “affordable dreams”…and love my mazdaspeed3.
Anyhow, I guess what I’m trying to say is that in my mind even though Mazda may only have a very small market share….what truly matters is what they’ve done with that small market share –diverse, reliable, stylish, top of class designs, AND FUN TO DRIVE!!! I can only speak for myself, but all the above are qualities that I Love about Mazda vehicles. I venture to guess, that many other Mazda owners (and those that became converts) feel similar or the same. Mazda vehicles are true car enthusiast vehicles….and companies like Corksport are definitely a testament to that enthusiasm.